Unfortunately, the challenge of responding to a tragedy has been on everyone’s mind for the past few days with the incident that occurred in Connecticut. Perhaps you have been super-saturated with ideas about how to interact with your own children. Our concern with today’s blog was to avoid being redundant or keeping a very sad story at the front of your mind.
As that dilemma was on our minds, we heard from John’s sister, Ann. She is a parent herself and a professor at Iowa State University. She told us about an interview she heard with one of the grieving parents. In essence his words were these…
“God gave us all free choice – and this young man used his free choice for evil. Now I have a choice. My free choice is to help others recover, to do good, not evil.”
That is perhaps one of the greatest messages a parent can hear regarding this or any tragedy. We cannot control others or their choices. We are responsible for our own choices and for how we respond to the circumstances we encounter.
Mom and Dad, if you can model godly responses to circumstances – the good, the bad, and the ugly – you are doing your children a tremendous service. They are watching you. God’s desire is for you to respond as He would. You are to lead with grace without compromising the truth.
How have you responded to the recent school tragedy?
